Anika Begay
This week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposed a new set of rules that would require bots that call and text to disclose when they use artificial intelligence.
The proposal builds on the FCC’s ban on placing AI-generated robocalls without the prior express consent of the person being called. The agency now hopes to require callers to disclose, while seeking that consent, whether they intend to use AI for future calls and messages, the FCC writes. Similar disclosures would have to be added to any AI-generated phone calls, which the agency says “contain an increased risk of fraud and other scams.”
The regulator suggests defining an “AI-generated call” as any call that uses technology to create “an artificial or pre-recorded voice or text using computational technology or other machine learning, including predictive algorithms and large language models, to process natural language and produce voice or text content to communicate with a called party via an outgoing telephone call.”
Finally, the agency hopes to carve out an exception for people with speech and hearing disabilities who use AI-generated speech software to help them communicate on outgoing calls. The FCC would also require that there be no “unwanted advertising” in such calls and that people receiving the calls not be charged. The agency asked for specific comments on whether scammers could abuse the exemption and how it might update its rules to prevent that.
